Equity Protection Swaps: A New Type of Investment Insurance for Holders of Superannuation Accounts

Abstract: We propose to develop a new class of investment insurance products for holders of superannuation accounts in Australia, which we tentatively call equity protection swaps (EPSs). An EPS is a standalone financial derivative, which is reminiscent of a total return swap but also shares some features with the variable annuity known as the registered index-linked annuity (RILA). The buyer of an EPS obtains partial protection against losses on a reference portfolio and, in exchange, agrees to share portfolio gains with the insurance provider if the realized return on a reference portfolio is above a predetermined threshold. Formally, a generic EPS consists of protection and fee legs with participation rates agreed upon by the provider and holder. A general fair pricing formula for an EPS is obtained by considering a static hedging strategy based on traded European options. It is argued that to make the contract appealing to holders, the provider should select appropriate protection and fee rates that make the fair premium at the contract's inception equal to zero. A numerical study based on the Black-Scholes model and empirical tests based on market data for S&P~500 and S&P/ASX~200 indices for 2020-2022 demonstrates the benefits of an EPS as an efficient investment insurance tool for superannuation accounts.